Can easily get a 20% referral fee just for sourcing and handing off that lead.

I know I can easily find a qualifying tenant who will pay $1,000 per month if I don't renew a lease with the existing tenant. 

All you need is a 5% cash-on-cash return, which you can find in most markets. 5% of 4.6M = $230kSo it sounds like you can easily hit your goal.

I have had a lot of success purchasing 5 bedrooms houses next to larger universities and have been able to easily find tenants.

If they are professional, they can explain this quickly and easily.

For example, many of the nicer ski towns around Colorado require first month, last month, plus the security deposit upon move-in which can easily amount to $7k+.

This is a significant risk to the other two parties that are bringing the deal and the money when they could just as easily hire a contractor and keep the equity for themselves. 

If you do budget that much, the you will easily hit your profit target.There are currently no restrictions in Lewis county and STRs work there, but there is always discussion on them by the city.

But I could easily make this a 3 bed, 2 bath within the existing sq ft. 

This has got to be one of the dimmest, easily solvable predicaments I've read on here